Pike Groundbait

Thought I would put a post up showing how I make my pike groundbait for those who are interested in giving it a try.

Ingredients- Any fish you can get hold of for cheap or even better free (Fishmongers off cuts) or old used baits.(Oilier the better)
2 x bags of red crumb or you prefered groundbait (No need to beed flavoured)
3 x Tins of sardine in sunflower oil
1/2 a botlle of predator plus
Water

Equipment- Blender, sharp knife, cutting board, mixing bowl, tupaware boxes.

Step 1- Get everything you need to make the groundbait laid out preferably outside as making this can pong a bit and once you start you dont want to be rumaging in the kitchen with stinky hands. (Mothers and wives go nuts)



Step 2- Chop up your fish into chunks and place in your blender in batches and blend to a 'lumpy fish paste' and then place in your mixing bowl.



Step 3- Add your crumb, sardines (with oil) and half a bottle of Predator plus into the mixing bowl and give it a rough mix



Step 4- Add water to your groundbait little by little as you would with any other until you get a nice cosistancy that will form and hold together and then add just a little more water to make it that bit wetter (helps when freezing)



Step 5 - Make the ground bait into bleps and place into tupaware boxes or bags to freeze ready to use when you wish.



These can be used fresh the reason i freeze them is because i can make a large batch every 2 weeks and its easier and less smelly to transport frozen.

Hope this helps anyone interested let me know what you think.

instead of the blender have you tried a mincer?

the resulting gloop doesnt float as much

I hadn't even thought about that mate. Forgot to say though that you need to defrost the balls prior to using otherwise the whole thing will float.

Bleps!!! is that a northern word lol

No it is suppose to say bleps. But no matter how many times I change it, it still comes out as bleps lol

That might be because we had to censor some words after having problems with some members using bad language ( x members i might add )
I take it its balls you are trying to put lol

I've taken that one off the censored word list seing as we don't have any problems with bad langauge now

I think Bleps is a fun word.

Did you guys think it was any good for my first go at a tutorial?

big_d2008 wrote:Did you guys think it was any good for my first go at a tutorial?

Yes thanks very well done I thought' and ........a picture or three says a thousand words.

Has got me quite inclined to try knock up a batch for myself............if I can get the missus out of the house long enough to get it together and clean up the debris!

Cheers'

Im going to knock some up and take it on my next trip to fill big feeders with. Yeah I thought it was good and as Adie says a picture paints a thousand words.

Cheers guys. I forgot to add that if you just use sunflower oil instead of water you can fill pva bags or mesh with them.

Used it again on sunday and had 3 runs and 2 fish within the first hour

Very good yes but I'd leave the Predator Plus out. You've got more than enough going on there without adding £s to the equation.

Thought of a cheeaper stinkier attractor today (can't beleive I haven't thought of this before) Chineese fish sauce. Made from fermented fish it is punjent as anything and available for 90p for 630ml. Bargain I think will be going in my next batch to replace the pred plus

Where you getting the sauce?

Check the contents on the fish sauce, generally Thai
It's usual makeup is; [Water, Anchovy Extract (29%), Salt, Sugar]
If it's over fermented, the fish smell is reduced

If you get it from an online chineese food wholesaler its cheeper

big_d2008 wrote:Thought of a cheeaper stinkier attractor today (can't beleive I haven't thought of this before) Chineese fish sauce. Made from fermented fish it is punjent as anything and available for 90p for 630ml. Bargain I think will be going in my next batch to replace the pred plus

beware nampla dissolves pva at a rate of knots if your using pva that is

while your doing the groundbait and freezing it add some dead maggots hemp etc to entice silvers as well if you want a ball to last a while then get hold of mollasses and add that, plus that will bring bream and roach from miles around

Noodle I think the mollasas will be too sweet and conteract the strog fishy smells I am trying to prduce but the maggots and hemp I will try and i can see tell tale bream signs from my peg when the groundbait is in.

Just got some huge open end feeders they are gonna be my next angle with this so that if i am roaming some can go in with each cast

Ive been using feeders for a few weeks now too.

big_d2008 wrote:Noodle I think the mollasas will be too sweet and conteract the strog fishy smells I am trying to prduce but the maggots and hemp I will try and i can see tell tale bream signs from my peg when the groundbait is in.

Just got some huge open end feeders they are gonna be my next angle with this so that if i am roaming some can go in with each cast

it acts differently to the fish, fish is quite oily and tends to rise, the mollases stays close to the bottom and spreads that way, if your rods are heavy enough use a method feeder and pva the bait to the side to aid casting add a pop up to the fish to aid separation as well

yes i know its getting a bit carpy but it works on some waters

big_d2008 wrote:Noodle I think the mollasas will be too sweet and conteract the strog fishy smells I am trying to prduce but the maggots and hemp I will try and i can see tell tale bream signs from my peg when the groundbait is in.

I think you're too worried about keeping the attractant fishy. It's thought that the submandibular pores act in a similar fashion to graph spectrometers, in that they analyse the make-up of certain odours, so the fish ingredients will still be quite apparent to the pike. Also, pike will often investigate odours that have no bearing on fish whatsoever, aniseed being a prime example.

I think the fishy ingredients will definitely act as an attractor and any bonus odours will only serve to arouse their interests even further. Pike can't be that fussy, being scavengers, so any strong foody odours are likely to be investigated I'd think.

People catch pike on sausages and let's face it, there's hardly any food in them at all!!.....

Andy Macfarlane wrote:

big_d2008 wrote:Noodle I think the mollasas will be too sweet and conteract the strog fishy smells I am trying to prduce but the maggots and hemp I will try and i can see tell tale bream signs from my peg when the groundbait is in.

I think you're too worried about keeping the attractant fishy. It's thought that the submandibular pores act in a similar fashion to graph spectrometers, in that they analyse the make-up of certain odours, so the fish ingredients will still be quite apparent to the pike. Also, pike will often investigate odours that have no bearing on fish whatsoever, aniseed being a prime example.

I think the fishy ingredients will definitely act as an attractor and any bonus odours will only serve to arouse their interests even further. Pike can't be that fussy, being scavengers, so any strong foody odours are likely to be investigated I'd think.

People catch pike on sausages and let's face it, there's hardly any food in them at all!!.....

is that why my wife keeps telling me she isnt eating that

ill get me coat

Well fair play!
Big D made it all look so easy it convinced me to try my own version. I've been stashing leftover sliced pan, bagles,brown bread anything the missus was about to sling. Got a few fresh mackerel (kept the lower halves for deads) and all my left over bait etc....... 2 cans of John Wests 'best' sardines and I found some EXTREMELY pungent fish food (freeze dried brine shrimp) left over from a tropical fish we once had. So a load of that went in too...... No Pred +

Followed all big D's instructions and it all came together great. Oily and smelly, with stones in the middle to sink. Ended up with a batch of 7 balls.

So Big D if your out there whats the deal. How many of these are you using per session? do you put in a few in a few different swims? or just the one? have you tried them in flood conditions

I've never used these before, I usually fish slacks on the edge orjust off the main drag especially now that its high and coloured. With my time constraints I usually get a 4 hour session.

Any operational guidelines would be great. BTW do I need to thaw them before chucking out?

Roly,

Cheers for the feed back mate, yes you will need to thaw the balls before using them otherwise they float and i think they will even with a stone in. I just take mine out the night before ready for the morning. I tend to sit out a area on the drains I fish so as soon as I choose my two areas I am going to drop in my baits I sling in a ball of groundbait before i do anything else. The next time I put in a ball is about halfway through my session unless it has been a productive day I think one more ball wont harm things and it usually helps. I think 4 balls for your 4 hour sessions will do plenty mate.

I have used them in post flood condition and they work well I usually fish one bait in the slack water and one just off the flow but as I mainly fish drains there is never a heavy flow just a gradual pull.

Just hope you have some good look with them and I am glad the instructions help. Let me know of your progress.

Tight Lines

Big D